ItsGeekToMe.co

Q: When I see on TV a web site to go to that I don’t absolutely trust, where can I go to check on that site?  I got a Trojan Horse once because I went on a site I saw on television.  Now I am reluctant to venture there. 

– Pat B.
Fort Walton Beach, FL

A: I’d be very interested to know on which site you picked up a Trojan that had advertised on TV.  Most malware authors are not monetarily invested in spreading their software (especially not so much that they’d purchase television advertising time).  I suspect that you probably mis-keyed the URL when you were typing it in, and wound up at a site other than that which you intended to go.  Or, you used the wrong top-level domain, for example, .com, when you meant .net.

One example of this type of misleading URL used to happen with www.WhiteHouse.com.  The real White House’s URL is a government website, so it had the top-level domain of .gov.  Some sneaky smut peddler purchased the URL www.WhiteHouse.com, and put up an adult site there.  Imagine the thousands of people who accidentally wound up there after innocently trying to go make a virtual visit to the White House!  In your case, whatever URL you ended up at likely performed what we Geeks call a “drive-by download” where it launched its malware onto your computer just because you happened to hit their web page.

I wouldn’t worry about visiting sites you see advertised on TV.  My opinion is that most, if not all of them are completely legitimate.  But do be careful about entering the URL exactly — character for character — the way it appeared on TV, otherwise you never know what you’ll get!

Q: I changed the DPI on my laptop to 192.  I want to change it back, but when I open the page, it’s so large that I can’t see all the controls, and I can’t scroll down.  I also wanted to do a system restore, but I have the same problems.  How can I get the computer to allow me to change to a smaller DPI? 

– John G.
Niceville, FL

A: Just boot Windows into Safe Mode, John.  Windows provides Safe Mode for use when something has gone wrong with your system configuration, and you can no longer boot normally to a usable interface.  This can include errors resulting from adding new devices, or from changing the system configuration, such as the graphics settings.  Safe Mode provides a minimal boot, without all the normal supplementary drivers loaded.  It won’t be fully functional, but it will be configurable, so you can put settings back the way they should be.  To enter Safe Mode, shut down and restart your machine.  In the short space between when the power-on self-test runs, and Windows starts to load, hit F8.  If you miss, you’ll have to let it boot, then shut down and try again.  You’ll know you got it when you see the Boot menu come up.  Select Safe Mode, and let it boot up all the way.  Change the graphics setting to the way you want it, and then reboot normally.